Hi all. I recently bought a Garmin Dakota 20. I have installed a map of Germany by VeloMap.org. Now I have also planned a nice tour in form of a gpx track (purely on the road, no small paths or so). When I download it to the device, it really shows me all the waypoints, but I dont want to have it that way, for example: I do not want to be notified whenever i pass a waypoint, because I use a different program to produce the gpx file and there is an algorithm putting in a lot of waypoints. Instead I would prefer if my Garmin would recognize that i want to travel along roads and notify me a few meters in advance in form of a message like "in x meters you have to turn left/right". Qustion: Is it possible to tell that to my Garmin? Do i need other maps maybe? Without receiving any explanation, I thougth that this is what is meant by "routing ability", is that correct? Thanks in advance, FW |
A GPX file can consist of three basic types: waypoints (wpt), tracks (trk) and routes (rte). To offer routing functionality, most devices require a GPX route instead of a GPX track. So you have to convert your track to a route first before transferring it to your device. This can be done using GPSBabel. |
Judging from page 5 to 7 of the owner's manual you can use tracks for navigation. But that just means that you see the track as "colored line". I do not see a hint that your Dakota 20 offers turn by turn announcements or at least notifications (my stone age Garmin, other model, beeps if I navigate a track but only if I am approaching a sharp turn). There is just "colored line" in the manual. Note that navigation by tracks is usually totally unrelated to the map on the device - no map is needed for navigation by a track. However, the specs mention "Automatic routing (turn by turn routing on roads)" so that should work (see also my and SomeoneElse's comment above. You can also try a "route" (made of a series of waypoints), see scai's answer. 1
For info, turn-by-turn routing works on my old eTrex Vista Hcx (including following a route created as per @scai's answer). I'd imagine it would on a Dakota 20 too. FWIW on a Nuvi it doesn't work in quite the same way, but that's not really relevant here.
(02 Aug '13, 12:48)
SomeoneElse ♦
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For those wanting a routable map for a Garmin of GB try this http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm
(02 Aug '13, 17:55)
andy mackey
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Ignoring any GPX that you may have loaded, if you try and navigate to a particular place using the Velomap map, do you have the option to "follow road" as well as "off road"?
… that is described there: http://www.velomap.org/velomaporg/autorouting/ However, that is really, as you say, ignoring the GPX and doing the routing automatically on the device.
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUGGESTIONS. As I will start the tour tomorrow, I wont have time to play around but I will definitely try out everything when I am back. Thanks again everybody!!